Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

"Slaving" an amp. I've heard this all my life, but don't know exactly what or why it is. What is it's purpose, how is it done, etc. Thanks.

The amp gurus will be on the case shortly.

In the meantime, my take on slaving is using one amp, often a tube head, as the "Master" amp for tone and a second as the "Slave" or power amp to drive the speakers.

This arrangement allows you to provide a blending of the preamp and a power amp. The point is to provide a range of sound effects, of which one is likely to be overdrive or distortion.

So, if you have a wall of Marshall speaker cabinets on stage, for example, and of course all of them must be powered but you only need one head to plug into.

Could there be anything cheaper to buy, instead of the whole amplifier itself? Couldn't Marshall, for example, just sell the power section for about half the price to just use as "Slave Amps", or would that be too costly?

Slaving, or 'daisy chaining' refers to connecting multiple amplifiers together for greater power output. In the old days, four-input Bassmans or Marshalls, could be joined by a cable from the unused input II, to a second amplifer, which could in turn have its unused input connected to another..... A more modern equivalent is to connect the line-out/direct-out to another amp which in turn can have it's line-out/direct-out connected to another......

So the point was/is, more power, Scotty? Is there not the danger of something blowing up or at least smoking?

No because all amps are receiving the same level input.